


Rough Edges

by rayo



Category: Archie Comics, Archie Comics & Related Fandoms, Riverdale (TV 2017), Riverdale (TV 2017) RPF
Genre: Alice Cooper (Archie Comics) is the Worst, Archie Andrews is a Good Friend, Betty Cooper Loves Jughead Jones, Cheryl Blossom Needs a Hug, Dark Betty Cooper, Dom/sub Undertones, F/F, F/M, Figure Skater! Betty Cooper, Hockey Player! Archie Andrews, Hockey Player! Jason Blossom, Jason Blossom is Alive, Mentioned Hot Dog (Archie Comics), Minor Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz, figure skating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-03-29 01:04:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13916079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rayo/pseuds/rayo
Summary: Betty is an Elite Figure Skater. Jughead gets a part-time job at Riverdale Ice Arena to help out his family. However, learning to drive a Zamboni is harder than you'd think when he always seems to be the subject of Betty Cooper's unwavering gaze. Alice Cooper is living vicariously through her daughter and will absolutely not allow Betty's focus to waiver and make the same mistakes she made, especially over a boy with the last name Jones.





	1. Madness in the Mundane

**Author's Note:**

> This is pretty loosely based off of my experience as a nationally competitive figure skater and ice dancer. Loosely in the sense, that I did online school and had absolutely no time for a boyfriend or even a social life. So here's my background.
> 
> I did freestyle skating competitively at the national level as a junior lady up until I was 17 (even competed in Junior Grand Prix Competitions as a member of Team USA), I took my senior moves test, then competed as a senior before multiple stress fractures ruined it for me. I did ice dancing since I was 15 and skated with my partner at the gold (senior) level until I graduated HS. I currently coach the sport and am a USFSA Gold Medalist in Moves in the Field, Free Skate, Pattern Dance, and Free Dance. I'm also a college freshman studying Computer Science.

Every day, for the past eleven years, Betty Cooper’s morning routine has always been the same. 

She sits in the car while an immaculately dressed Alice Cooper runs into Pop Tate’s Chock’lit Shop. Every day at 5:40 am sharp, she orders two coffees; one regular, and a decaf for her daughter, in to-go cups.

Within seconds of receiving the styrofoam cups, the bells on the diner's door announce the blonde’s departure and the Cooper’s shiny midnight-blue Subaru Outback pulls out of the diners parking lot, and into the lone reserved space in front of Riverdale Ice Arena. 

A little over a decade ago, Riverdale Ice Arena was built by Andrews Construction on Clifford Blossom's dime. A father, completely wrapped around his daughter's little finger, indulged his pigtailed little girl’s dream of becoming an ice princess. Surprisingly, she stuck it out for a few years, the rhinestone adorned costumes being reason enough for her to put up with practicing an actual sport. Cheryl loved the attention it got her from her usually aloof parents, then one day, her twin Jason decided to pick up a hockey stick, and the spotlight was no longer on her.

Regardless, Cheryl toughed it out for a few more years before deciding gymnastics was her “true passion.” Which ultimately led to her current reign as head-bitch-in-charge of Riverdale High School’s famous River Vixens Cheer Squad.

While cheer occupies the majority of her time, she still manages to skate on occasion, just enough that she’s comfortable performing in the ice show fundraisers the arena throws twice a year to benefit the Riverdale Rotary Club.

Betty, on the other hand, has been relentless in her pursuit of glory on the ice. For the past few years, she’s been training as an elite athlete. Skating a minimum of five hours a day, six days a week; not including the various off-ice sessions, personal athletic training, seminars, and competitions she attends whenever Rockland County Public Schools have as much as a three day weekend.

It’s far earlier than anyone would want to work in a town like Riverdale, so Alice unlocks the doors to the ice arena and turns on all of the lights. 

As per the blonde matriarchs demands, the rink was resurfaced before close last night so everything is already in order for Betty to start her morning practice.

Alice disappears into the office, which doubles as the rink’s administrative office as well as a part-time home for the Riverdale Registrar whenever there happens to be a Cooper in the building.

Betty pulls a jump rope out of her duffle bag, grateful that her mom isn’t scrutinizing her every move for the time being. Jumping rope, stretching, and off-ice jumps are just the beginning of her day. Once she’s sufficiently warmed up, she pulls her skates out of her bag. A porcelain white pair of Edea ‘Piano’ boots fitted with freshly sharpened John Wilson Pattern 99 Revolution blades.

Her skates cost more than the average mortgage payment in Riverdale, and she goes through two pairs of boots and blades every year. Thankfully some of Alice’s time spent at the rink also contributes to its operation, buying Betty discounted ice time.

Betty laces her skates, the nylon laces digging into the inner crevices of her knuckles, further strengthening the small calousses that have formed there. She pulls her leggings over the boots and zips up her fleece jacket. She runs her fingers over her hair, making sure there are no bumps in her ponytail before getting on the ice.

She takes off her plastic skate guards, carrying them and her water bottle over to the sideboards. Connecting her phone to the communal rink aux-cord, Betty puts her skating playlist on, loud enough for her, but quiet enough so that her mother won’t implode at her preference for alternative rock and bubblegum pop.

Betty starts to skate a few laps to get her muscles warm. Crossovers, power pulls, choctaws, and brackets litter the ice with familiar geometric etchings. After getting her edges warmed, she goes through the footwork pattern in her short program. Just in time for Alice Cooper’s arrival in the coaches box. 

“No, no, no, Elizabeth, we need to fix your arms on those twizzles…  _ What are you _ ,  _ a Turkish ice dancer? _ ” She critiques, her tone laden with distaste.

Betty rolls her eyes, with her back turned to her mom and repeats that specific move. Causing Alice to raise her voice. 

“No Elizabeth. From the beginning,” she briefly reprimands her, then dismisses her with a flick of the wrist.

Betty complies and does her footwork from the start, focusing much more on her arms so they’re exactly as the way her choreographer André demonstrated last month.

“Better,” her mom states plainly.

Betty starts picking up speed, skating backwards to warm up her jumps. Starting with three waltz jumps across the ice. 

She goes through all of her singles, making them as open as possible. She goes through them again, just to get a feel for the height and speed she’s looking for.

Betty then moves onto her doubles, again her salchows, loops, flips, and lutzes are nothing short of perfection. Her double axel, a jump she knows like the back of her hand, “it needs more height,” says an exasperated-looking Alice Cooper.

Betty then does her double axel again, followed immediately by two more, working on her leg drive that’s necessary to get the height her mom is complaining about.

“Okay, fine. Start on your triples,” Alice yells out, sipping on her cup of coffee.

Betty skates over to the sideboards and takes a sip of her water, resting for a second before her mom glares at her expectantly. She unzips her jacket and lays it on the sideboard.

She skates along the boards, getting the speed necessary for a triple salchow, going for her mohawk entrance setup instead of the traditional outside three turn expected. 

Betty’s always attempted to keep a level head, which has been one of her biggest strengths in her skating. Pushing down the anxiety of falling is one of the biggest fights a skater has. Not popping her jumps is at the front of her mind whenever she’s doing multi-rotational jumps. No matter how good you get at skating, popping is a skaters biggest enemy that brings down even the best. As Alice always says,  _ popping is jump cancer. _

Keep your arms and legs tight. Make the landing stable. Betty lets out a small smile at what was a perfectly executed jump,  _ watch mom try to criticize that one,  _ she thinks before her mom’s prior criticisms intrude her thoughts.

_ Calm down Betty, that was your easiest jump, don’t get cocky. _

She keeps at it, doing them consistently well, before switching to another jump. She moves on to her triple-toe loop, another consistent jump of hers. 

Again, she manages a near flawless execution. She keeps doing them, at least three more until her mom butts in, “Try it with ‘Tano arms.” 

Betty obliges and continues to do the jump, getting her entrance just right and then moving a single arm above the head while in the air. She lands fine, but on a little deeper of an edge than what she knows her mom would find acceptable, she does it again without being asked and manages to do it much better this time around.

She goes through her triples more, doing loops, flips, and her lutz. The only one needing a bit more fine tuning being the triple lutz. It’s more or less the fact that she’s been doing Rippon arms for her lutz, even though they’re not required, they change your center of gravity and give you killer points for the grade of execution in competitions, so it’s something she’s been obsessively working on mastering.

After two footing the jump three times in a row, Betty skates over to the side boards gets a drink of water and pretends to stretch her back out, when she’s actually just attempting to mask the frustration and disappointment evident on her face. Alice walks over and directs Betty’s face to look at her. 

“Think about what you’re doing Betty. Work on snapping into the rotations quicker, don’t delay it at all, I see what you’re doing and it’s not working for you”

Where most skating mom’s hover and don’t really know much about what they’re yelling at their kids about, Alice Cooper is a full-fledged anomaly. Having skated at the National level as a teen, she’s more knowledgeable about the sport than some coaches are.

If she had a mantra it’d probably go something like; tough love, all the time. Break your children to make them stronger, and once they’re broken, press harder.

Betty skates off, shakes her hands out, and then goes into the complicated set up that’s in her long program. Crossovers, a charlotte spiral, a choctaw, followed by the jump. All the elements on their own are completely manageable. However, when you combine all of them with the speed necessary for a triple lutz, it gets tricky.

Betty does backwards-crossovers, skating around the perimeter of the rink, cutting across the ice diagonally she lifts her back right leg up into the charlotte spiral, her leg comes back down, she squeezes in the choctaw, then her left knee bends deep while her right leg reaches back behind her for the lutz. Her toe pick violently digs into the ice propelling her up into the jump she pulls her arms in tightly, then up above her head, finally checking out of the jump after the three rotations are complete.

Betty hears something so rare she’s concerned her ears are deceiving her. Clapping coming from her mother’s area.

“Finally, thank God,” Alice exclaims loudly to her daughter.

“At least I know you can do it now,” she says somewhat tauntingly, causing Betty to dig her nails into her palms.

“It felt good,” Betty says back to her mom.

“Great, now do it again.”

Betty goes and attempts it again. Prepping the entry, then proceeding to fumble on something as stupid as a damn choctaw. She doesn’t even attempt the jump that time and goes directly into another set-up for it. 

Betty notices her mom walk away from the rinkside, which relieves her a bit, but not much given that there’s still a camera-feed back in the office.

She does the repetitions as her mom requested and lands them well both times. She moves onto the triple-flip, triple-toe combination she’s been working on for the past few months. Over the past week or so it’s finally been coming together nicely, things are consistent with it and she thinks about it less as her body takes over.

For Betty, half of her battle is knowing that she’s capable of doing something, once that’s dealt with, she’s largely fearless on the ice.

Betty practices her spins, not necessarily having to improve them at all. Spins have always been her strongest component, she consistently gets Level 4 Spins by the International Judging Systems Criteria with minimal effort, it’s just a matter of practicing them so it stays that way.

Alice once again, emerges from her office to the rinkside, “Elizabeth, I want you to run through your short program and long program. Two times each. Then do a double run through of your long program.”

Betty nods and skates to the center of the ice, knowing that her mom will start her program music from her phone. Her short program is an instrumental medley from the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack, and her long program is from the Black Swan movie soundtrack.

The speakers start playing her music and its two minutes and forty-six seconds of grace from the start. A Junior Ladies short program requires a variety of elements; the first of which eases her into the program, a tried and true double axel. 

The next is a spin that must be held for a minimum of eight revolutions, Betty does a layback that she pulls into a pearl spin position, then into a bielmann. She skates out of it and sets up her lutz, the requirement is either a double or triple lutz that’s immediately preceded by connecting steps or other free skating movements, so being the perfectionist that she is, of course, Alice pushed her daughter towards the triple. She does her triple lutz with the charlotte spiral and choctaw perfectly. 

The rest of the program goes something like, a butterfly entrance flying sit spin, her triple-flip/triple-toe combination jump, a footwork step sequence, and a camel spin combination with a change of foot into a back sideways facing sit spin she pulls up into an I-spin.

She skates through both her short and long program cleanly the first two times. But in the second half of her long program double run through, Betty falls on her opening triple-flip.

“What in the world Elizabeth Cooper?” Alice yells from the sideboards, having appeared so quickly it’s like they’re in a Harry Potter fantasy world and her mom has mastered the art of apparition. Betty just sits dejectedly on the ice as her music continues to play. Letting out a frustrated groan.    
  
“I’m just tired, mom!” she yells back, knowing that she’ll get no sympathy from her mother regardless.

“No excuses, do it again, from the beginning. A complete double run through, again,” Alice Cooper says, concluding with a snap of her fingers. 

“You have ten minutes before we have to leave, I want this clean Betty.” 

The young blonde skates out to the middle. Knowingly half-assing choreography due to how exhausted she is. At least she lands the flip jump.

She does actually manage to skate through it cleanly, but when she gets off the ice. Her mother is livid, “what was that? Your choreography was garbage Elizabeth.”

“I know,” Betty mutters while unlacing her skates and slipping her feet into a pair of sheepskin-lined L.L. Bean slippers. 

Their car pulls up to Riverdale High at eight am. Betty grabs her backpack and tote bag filled with a change of clothes and tailgates a teacher into the building. She still has twenty minutes before class starts.   
  
As always, Betty runs to the locker room and takes a quick shower to wash off the sweat and grime of a morning skate. Drying off, she changes into a grey sweater with floral embroidery across the neckline, a pair of jeans and pale pink ballet flats. She sprays her hair with dry shampoo and does her makeup just enough to look polished and presentable. Finishing by brushing her hair up into a perfect ponytail, using her fingers to add some curls at the end.

She rushes out of the locker room at the sound of the warning bell and swiftly takes her course to homeroom. Once there, she takes a seat next to a familiar ginger as classmates continue to trickle in.   
  
“How’s the music coming along Arch?” Betty asks as Archie Andrews scribbles away in the leather-bound Moleskine she had gotten him for his birthday last month.   
  
“Pretty good, nothing too deep, just mainly focusing on some melodies. What about you? How was Alice this morning?”

“Oh, you know, neurotic as usual,” she replies with a bittersweet roll of the eyes.

“Which reminds me, she’s looking to hire some part-time help at the rink, and I was wondering if you or any of your guy friends would be interested. I mean, you’d get to drive a twenty-year-old mechanical death trap around the rink every couple of hours.”

“I don’t know, watching you practice in tight spandex leggings might be a tough sell Coops,” he teases. 

“Seriously though Archie, pay is pretty decent.  _ Ten dollars an hour _ ,” she tempts in a sing-song voice, hoping to convince her best-friend to take the position.

“I don’t know, between football and music, I’ve actually been putting in an effort to keep my grades solid, math is killing me this year and I can’t risk falling behind. You know, not everyone is as naturally gifted with school work like you are,” he replies.

“Oh no, trust me I am not ‘ _ naturally gifted’ _ . See, there’s this thing called a social life, which I tend to severely lack, meanwhile you’re the golden boy of Riverdale. Maybe if you spent a little less time talking up every girl who looks your way you’d be able to focus,” she teases with a wink.    
  
Archie really has been quite the womanizer lately. Football season came into full swing, Archie got a great position on the varsity team, came out with his music, and as a result, he’s gotten loads of female attention. 

“Hey, I can’t help the fact chicks dig a musician,” he says with a devious twinkle in his eye.    
  
“Shut up,” she says, playfully slapping his wrist.

Suddenly, his attention is elsewhere, and it seems as if everyone else’s is too. Betty follows their gazes to be met with the sight of a gorgeous raven-haired bombshell. Her neck decorated with a delicately hung string of pearls. She walks up to their teacher's desk and is directed to the seat across from Betty and Archie.


	2. Chapter 2

The black haired beauty walks over to them and extends a hand, “Hi, I’m Veronica Lodge.”

Betty confidently shakes her hand. Assessing the new girl, “I know. I’m Betty Cooper.”

“Someone told you about my arrival?” She asks with a quirked brow.

“It’s a small town, news travels fast,” she replies dismissively as if saying don't worry about it, or not to get too conceited.

“Betty’s parents own the town newspaper. I’m Archie Andrews, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you both, ... are either of you familiar with Truman Capote’s works? I’m “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” but this town is strictly “In Cold Blood.” No offense” she replies, taking a seat and rummaging through her bag for something.

Meanwhile, Betty’s watching Archie closely. This is the most excited he’s ever seemed about someone, clearly, he’s smitten, despite having just met the girl.

“So, where did you move from?” Betty asks, attempting to further their conversation while collecting information about Veronica Lodge.

“New York,” she replies, seeming to already be bored with the topic.

“Well, welcome to Riverdale,” Archie says a little too excitedly.

“So do you play any sports?” he says, clearly in an attempt to get to know the girl.

“I cheer, and ice skate,” she replies coolly.

"No way, Betty actually figure skates, and I play hockey.”

“Ooh nice, Riverdale Ice Arena was actually one of the draws for the area. My family already owned an apartment in town so it was an easy choice when we decided to escape the city,” she says, really knowing how to work a conversation.  
  
“The Pembrooke I assume?” Betty asks for confirmation.

“Correct. Listen, is there anything fun to do around here? Quite frankly, this whole move has filled me with dread and I desperately  need something to take my mind off of it.”

“Actually, Betty and I were going to catch a movie at the Bijou tonight. Do you want to join us? And maybe we can un-fill you with dread?”

“Oh, my mom and I had plans tonight, but raincheck?” she asks hopefully, giving Archie a suggestive look that communicated much more than words could about her current feelings towards him.

Betty looks between the two of them, fighting off the temptation to say _Hello I’m Here!_ Thankfully throughout the year, she’d gotten over her schoolgirl crush on Archie. Since she doesn’t have time for boys anyway a relationship wouldn’t even do much for her.

The school day passes swiftly and Betty cleans up things by her locker before heading outside, waiting to be picked up in the kiss and ride lane by her mother. Veronica Lodge, almost if by apparition, appears beside her.  
  
“Headed to the Ice Rink?” She asks.

“Every day,” Betty replies letting out a bored sigh.

“Well, I think I’ll have to be joining you in that once my mother and I get settled,” Veronica replies, seemingly attempting to communicate to Betty that she’s competitive as well.

“Fun, what level do you compete at?” Betty asks feigning disinterest but actually hyper-attuned to her answer.

“I’m skating on novice now, it’s nerve-wracking to make the jump to junior but I know I’ll do it soon anyway. Yourself?”

“I’m currently competing as a Junior lady, though that’s more my mother’s decision than my own,” the blonde admits.”

“Impressive. I’ve taken a step back the last year or so, but moving here should be incentive enough to hide away at the ice rink for multiple hours,” Veronica replies.

A familiar Subaru pulls up to the car parade and Betty jumps in, giving a slight wave goodbye to the raven-haired beauty.  
  
“Is that the Lodge girl?” Mrs. Cooper asks, looking expectantly at her daughter.

“Yup,” Betty replies, popping the P.

“Did you know she figure skates? Novice mom,” Betty asks and shares additional info.

“I did, just wasn’t sure how competitive she’s been lately. I figured you’d find that out for me soon enough,” Alice replies, pulling out of the Riverdale High School parking lot while making her way to the ice arena.

Once they get to the Riverdale Ice Arena parking lot, Alice stops and looks intently at her daughter, “Listen, Betty. This year? It’s critical for colleges. Grades are important, extracurriculars are important. Athletics, important. Maintaining a decent character? Hugely important, colleges do look at that.”

“You say that every year.”

“You’ve accomplished so much, Betty, I don’t want anything jeopardizing that. Think about your poor sister. Polly was such a shining star till she let herself be ruined by that Blossom boy and now, where is she? She’s turned her room into a cave. she never comes out.”

“I’m not Polly, Mom.”

“No, but it’s so easy to slip, Betty. You missed curfew last night,” her mother replies with a faux-concerned look evident on her face.

“By seven minutes. And I was with Archie. Who has red hair, yes, but he is nothing like Jason Blossom.”

“Oh, sweetie. They’re all like Jason. I love you so much, Betty. I just need you to be as smart as I know

you are. And stay. Focused. You’re going to need to be, especially if this Lodge girl proves she’s a force to be reckoned with.”

“I know mom,” Betty says. Grabbing her bags out of the backseat of the car and swiftly making her way into the ice rink.

Betty changes into her exercise clothing and laces up her skates, making her way out on the ice for her afternoon practice.

“Hey Betty, I’m going to be busy in the office for quite a bit. Don’t slack off,” she says sternly and Betty just nods in response.

Luckily for Alice, her daughter’s focus is so locked in today, that she doesn’t even notice the mysterious black-haired boy sneak in through the arena doors.

But boy, does he notice _her_. His eyes track her every move and twirl, and he’s captivated by the girl on the ice. He’s staring so intently that he nearly jumps when Alice Cooper clears her throat behind him.

“Jughead Jones, follow me.”

“Hey, Ms. Cooper. I’m here for the job, Archie Andrews told me you were looking for a part-time worker.”

“Well, you’ve heard correctly. It’s mainly just janitorial duties, cleaning up the rink side area, monitoring sessions should I need you to, and then for skate sharpening and driving the Zamboni you’d be trained to do so. It’s ten dollars an hour, I’d need you to start ASAP.”

“That’s actually great. Also want to add that I can work odd hours if you need, coming in very early or super late is something I’m not opposed to should you need it.”

“Perfect, if you want the job it’s yours. Would you be alright with a cash payment for hours worked, weekly?”

“That’d be amazing Mrs. Cooper, thank you so much.”

“Good, one last thing. Don’t even think about touching my daughter. If she initiates something you can respond briefly out of politeness, but nothing further. I don’t need her to lose focus. Now, come follow me so I can show you where everything is.”

Jughead follows in the footsteps of Mrs. Cooper, being shown various areas of the arena. The pro shop, where he may have to fill in some shifts on occasion. The front desk, where he’ll be responsible for signing skaters in for their sessions. The Zamboni garage, where the monster machine is stored. As well as various storage closets for different rink supplies. The rink is fully equipped with everything anyone visiting one of these facilities could ever need, even a disco-ball adorns the ceiling above the ice for the weekly Friday ‘skate nights’ frequented by the middle school students of Riverdale.

While walking around the rink, Jughead absolutely cannot take his eyes off of Betty Cooper.  
  
“She’s amazing,” he comments to Mrs. Cooper.   
  
“There’s always room for improvement Jughead.”

The rink starts filling up with freestyle skaters of various ages. Typically trickling in as their school's release. First, the high schoolers, followed by the middle schoolers, then finally the little elementary school kids.

Even as the crowd on the ice grows to around twenty skaters, it’s still very clear that the older girls have the right of way. Coaches observe from the sidelines for the more experienced girls, while some venture out wearing parkas to demonstrate hands-on skills for the more developmental skaters.

Coaches lift skaters on the harness to help master jumps they might not have the courage to attempt otherwise, and spins are attempted with grace and athleticism.

Thankfully, Alice implemented a fairly effective system to give skaters the right of way. An ugly neon green strip of cloth is tied around the waist of any skater running their program.

Betty waits by the audio booth for the current skater's program to wrap up, and takes the brightly colored sash and ties it around her waist. She runs through her short program, the younger skaters teeming with glee at the sight of their role model skating as a real-life ‘Belle.’

 “Anyways, I’ll have Archie show you how to sharpen skates soon. In addition to your base pay, you’ll get an additional $2 for each pair of skates you sharpen,” she tells him.

 “I need to get back to the office and do some work. There’s a small grease spill over near the garage, not related to the Zamboni, one of the fry cooks spilled grease when emptying the fryers this morning and I haven’t gotten around to it.”

Jughead complies and seeks out the cleaning supplies closet she’d showed him earlier. He manages to find a mop, filling the bucket with hot soapy water from the little faucet area in the closet. Beginning to mop the spill, his eyes flicker between the ice and the current task.

Betty skates to the boards and stretches a bit for a break. It’s 3:28 now, so her coach should be here any minute. While Alice helps with a large amount of Betty’s training, they bring in an Olympic coach from the city a few times a month to work with her. Then she has a jumps specialist who drives in from Buffalo every other Monday evening, and a choreographer in Wilmington, Delaware they go down and visit whenever she’s in need of a new program.

For most competitors at Betty’s level,  it’d make sense just to up and move to somewhere that already had the coaching expertise she needed, but the Coopers are firmly rooted in Riverdale for the time being.

Betty notices her coach, Sergei, enter the rink. He heads straight for the ice and puts on his skates, an unexpected move for coaches of his caliber. Most Olympic level coaches simply stand on the sidelines and provide critique, but Sergei is very much hands-on with his approach.

His thick accent makes him harder to understand, but Betty’s been listening to everything he says like the gospel for the past 2 years, “My Elizaveta howvre you doing?”

“Well. I’ve been very comfortable with my programs. And you?”

“My journey was tolerable.”

He steps out onto the ice to join Betty, “you are warm?" 

She nods and he gestures out to the ice, commanding a jump combination. “ _Triple-lutz, triple toe, half loop, triple salchow.”_

Betty follows his order, and her presence merely parts the gaggles of intermediate skaters for her. Gaining her power and speed through back crossovers in the entrance, she propels herself into the jump combination. The initial lutz is perfect but the triple-toe is somewhat faulty due to an overreaching toepick on its entrance, so she underrotates that component. Luckily, she recovers enough with the half-loop to land a perfect triple salchow.

She looks at her coach for any sign of what to do, the Russian simply gestures to the other side of the ice indicating - _do it again._

Jughead watches as the perfect Betty Cooper attempts to prove herself over and over again. Due to some subtle intricacies, he’s unable to pick up, she’s resigned to doing the same jumps again and again.

Betty is somewhat breaking down at this point. It’s her sixth time attempting the combination and she skates back over to Sergei. It’s a shocking moment for the typically self-aware blonde, “What am I doing wrong?”

“Your mind, and your leg. The first two times you messed up were due to the positioning of your extended foot, the last ones were due to the fact that you’ve, what’s that phrase… been getting in your head. Remember my child, mental toughness. You are indomitable, strong girl.”

Betty nearly has tears well up but she uses her arms to wipe ‘sweat’ and tears from her face before it’s given away.

She skates back out, setting up her jump.

_I am indomitable. I can do this. I’ve done it before, I’ll do it again. Pull in tight. Reach back, not sideways._

And the crowd goes wild, in her imagination, of course. She executed it cleanly and it was all she needed to move on with her self-doubt.

Sergei shows her some new positioning and hand placements for her spins, adding delicate details to otherwise textbook perfect spin combinations.

He has her do some new exercises, a back-spin where at the end she does a double loop jump out of the spin, “It helps with your rotation and snap.”

They go on the harness and work on triple axels, she’s landed it in practice before but they tend to be about a quarter of a turn under-rotated. On the ice-harness, they’re flawless. It’s a long-term goal, something Alice has been secretly hoping Betty will accomplish before she skates as a Senior lady.  
  
After her session ends at five, Betty gets off the ice and does some homework on a bench, stretching as she does so. 

Jughead’s conveniently wheeling some equipment around, a dead speaker Alice wanted to be removed. When Betty looks up at him, “Hey, you’re Jughead, correct?”

He looks almost surprised that she talked to him and replies, “In the flesh. You’re the resident ice queen, Elizabeth Cooper?”

“In the flesh,” she quips back teasingly.

“And it’s Betty,” she’s quick to add.

“Well nice to meet you Betty,” he says attempting to continue on with the task at hand.

“You’re in my physics class. Have you done the homework due tomorrow? I tried starting it yesterday, but my notes are really messing me up because they don’t seem to be applicable to this...”

“Do you want me to take a look?” he asks and she nods in response. Thankfully, for the time being, Jughead is blissfully unaware of the fact physics is one of her best subjects.

“Oh, this pre-lab? Easy, you’ve just got to-” Jughead starts explaining and Betty just nods along to what he’s saying.

"So you’re good now?” he asks.

“Probably. Would you mind giving me your number? In case I have any questions later...” she asks, realizing she said it in a more suggestive tone than she intended.

Jughead swallows, hard. “Sure, no problem,” he hands his phone over to her and she smiles pridefully when done entering it, having sent a text to herself as well.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it. I’m glad you’re working here, how’d you find out about the job?”

“Archie told me about it and the pay was higher than the drive in so it was a no-brainer as long as Riverdale’s devil in Prada would take me,” he teases.

 “You’re friends with Archie?” Betty asks.  
  
“Yeah, we go pretty far back, football and other various things have filled his time lately but we always have each other's backs for the most part,” Jughead replies and Betty makes a mental note to interrogate Archie about him later.


	3. Chapter 3

“Well I guess I’ll let you get back to whatever hell my mother’s putting you through,” Betty says with a hint of reluctance, but she knows that she’ll have to be back on the ice at five thirty so she wants to wrap up this homework.

“See you around Betty,” he replies, returning back to hauling the audio equipment around.

She finishes the pre-lab and figures that she’ll try to call Jughead tonight to compare responses. She heads back out onto the ice a few minutes before she has to be.

Thankfully, some other girls at the rink have started to take lessons with Sergei, hopefully adding incentive for him to come to this small towns dingy rink on occasion.

Betty gets back out on the ice, running through her short program sans jumps. Marking the ice where jumps should happen, but doing every other component to its fullest.

She has another hours worth of private instruction with Sergei for the evening, before having to do an off-ice class that one of the other coaches runs.

Once her lesson is done, she heads off to the benches and rolls out her muscles with a rubberized, spike-laden tool that looks more suited as a torture device than its actual purpose. Betty goes and puts her skates away in her locker, grabbing a pair of sneakers to change into. 

By the time Betty is walking out of the rink it’s six forty five. She ducks her head into her moms office, “Mom, are you ready?”

“Oh. Call your father to come pick you up? Sorry Elizabeth I’m actually going to be busy for the next hour or so,” her mom says with a dismissive wave of her hand. Betty huffs slightly and leaves with an eyeroll. Heading to get settled in the bleachers, that is, until she sees Jughead working the front desk.

“Prepare for the weeknight public session madness Jones,” Betty teases.

“Why? How many people should I expect?” he asks.

“I was kidding, there’s going to be ten skaters at the most. Weeknights are fairly slow, except tuesday, because that’s the dollar skate. And it can get a little crazy whenever there are pick up hockey games… Did my mom show you how to check people in?” 

“Not really,” he quips, so Betty makes her way behind the counter. 

“So for most of these skaters you’re going to just scan their cards, and then the system automatically deducts a session from their accounts. It’s a little different than freestyle skaters because most of them just have running accounts and sign in on this sheet. She says, grabbing the clipboard laying down on the counter. But after you scan the skaters card you specify in the computer whether it’s a public, skate night, freestyle, or hockey session, using this dropdown list. For anyone not using a card, you ask for their zipcode, type it in, the computer determines if it should charge them the resident or non resident rate, then you just take their payment like anywhere else but offer them a card, then you can just set up an account using this button right here,” she gestures using the computer mouse to keep him up to speed.

“We keep spare unassigned cards in this drawer, and you’ll just scan it while the cursor is in the member ID box and it’ll automatically fill it in for you, everything else is just what you’d ask the customer,” she says looking up at him.

“Are you good or do you need help?” She asks.

“I think I’m good, but if you want to hangout I won’t object,” he says, with the last part being spoken a bit softer should Alice Cooper be eavesdropping.

“That’d actually be nice, waiting on my dad to text me back, so I know if I have a ride home. My mother is obviously engrossed in something super important soo... ” she rambles on. 

She looks over Jughead’s body as he welcomes one of the first skaters and checks them in. He’s got some very nice arms, the kind that come from manual labor and real work as opposed to the ones gained through deliberate effort at the gym. And those black jeans really do a number on his butt.

“-Betty, Betty,” oh shit, he’s been trying to get my attention for a while, she thinks. 

“Oh, I’m so sorry, what do you need Jug?” Betty asks

“Hi, Mr. Muggs! Ready for the session?” she asks greeting Ethel’s grandfather and taking over for Jughead. “See, he has an older card, we’ve tried really hard to replace all of these. So you’re just going have to manually type the member ID in.”

“Cool, thanks,” Jughead replies doing so.

“You know we really have to get you over to a new membership card Mr. Muggs,” Betty says. 

“I know, I know. I have so many passes on there though, I’d hate to lose them,” he replies concerned.

“I will personally assure that they all transfer over when you decide to sir,” she replies in an attempt to convince him. 

“Maybe next time darling,” he replies taking his card back from Jughead, going to lace up his skates that are undoubtedly older than she is.

“See, that’s Ethel Muggs’ grandfather, he actually skated in the Ice Capades in his youth. He comes almost every morning and evening,” Betty explains to Jughead.

“That’s cool, good to see that this place helps keep the elderly of Riverdale active,” Jughead responds.

“Yeah, it’s really cute to watch him out there tracing figures. It seems like such an archaic form of skating these days, meanwhile it’s what all of the older skaters are familiar with,” she explains.

“Meanwhile, I can barely skate without falling,”Jughead replies.“No way, what on earth Jug?” she asks, shocked at his admission.

“I mean I can skate, it’s just the stopping that really gets me,” he says with a boyish smile that Betty is determines to see more of. 

“Well, since you’ve been very generous to help me with my chemistry work. I’ll teach you how to stop,” she says with certainty.

They actually end up hanging out and chit chatting for another hour or so. Betty’s dad never texted her back so she leaves with Alice. On the way out Alice stops to talk with Jughead, “Stay until nine, which is closing tonight, Alex over there will resurface the ice and show you closing procedures.”

“Okay, thank you Mrs. Cooper. See you at school Betty,” he says, addressing both of the Cooper women.

“Bye Jug,” she says waving over her shoulder.

Once they get to the comfort of their Subaru, Alice looks sternly at her daughter. 

“I didn’t realize you were friends with that Jones boy,” she says, pursing her lips, giving way to the fact she’s obviously displeased by it.

“We have physics and english together, apparently he’s good friends with Archie,” Betty offers, in an effort to quench her mother’s undying thirst for control.

“Well that doesn’t mean much, Archie Andrews is a dangerous boy,” Alice retorts.

“Well according to you all boys are dangerous and if you had any real say in it I’d be going to an all-girls Catholic School,” Betty says with a humph.

“How dare you speak to me that way Elizabeth. Boys your age are entirely too dangerous because of the distraction they present, and as Polly can attest, they’ll only break your heart,” She says, using the start of her car’s engine as a punctuation mark.

“I don’t even think about Jug that way, mom,” Betty says softly, not even convincing herself of it.

“Keep it that way Betty.” 

The rest of their ride is in silence and a million thoughts race through mama Coopers mind. She’s worried out of her mind for her daughter’s wellbeing, but of course, Betty doesn’t see it that way. She hired Jughead out of empathy for the boy. She’d heard through the grapevine that his father’s drinking habit had returned with a vengeance and felt that it was the least she could do to help him have some stability in what was undoubtedly a tumultuous life. She thought back to her own heartbreak at the hands of a Jones boy, and as the seconds passed she’s convinced herself to be cautious about what she says around Betty and Jughead. After all, history has a funny way of repeating itself.

Betty shoots off a quick text to Archie, yet again backing out of their movie plans.


End file.
